California: Judge Allows Release of Secretly Filmed Videos

An anti-abortion group has a free speech right to release covert video of discussions with a company that provides fetal tissue for research, even if the video was illegally recorded, a judge ruled Friday. Judge Joanne O’Donnell of Los Angeles Superior Court rejected efforts by StemExpress to block the videos, though she said the company was likely to prevail in its lawsuit claiming its privacy was violated by an anti-abortion activist posing as a biomedical company employee. The case arose after the Center for Medical Progress began releasing videos of Planned Parenthood officials discussing providing aborted fetal organs for research. Abortion opponents said the video showed Planned Parenthood was illegally harvesting and selling organs. Planned Parenthood said that it did nothing wrong and that the videos were deceptively edited to support extremists’ false claims. Placerville-based StemExpress, which got some fetal tissue from Planned Parenthood before ending its ties last week, realized the center also secretly recorded its chief executive and others at a restaurant in May. It sued to block the videos from being seen. The company said the videos were illegally obtained because officials were not notified they were being recorded and their right to privacy was violated.

A version of this brief appears in print on August 22, 2015, on Page A10 of the New York edition with the headline: California: Judge Allows Release of Secretly Filmed Videos . Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe